HOT ROD announced the Win Your Dream Engine Contest sponsored by Edelbrock, Comp Cams, Performance Distributors, Speed-Pro, Milodon, and ARP in June 2003. The idea was that readers would design an engine using any parts they wanted from the sponsors' catalogs. We've already covered the Ford (Dec. '04) and Pontiac (Jan. '05) winners; now, at long last, it's the Mopar's turn.
Out of 6,039 entries, David Stottmann of Parsons, Kansas, caught our attention with his Plan B, which involved turning down the mains on a Chrysler RB 440 engine's 3.75-inch-stroke crank so it would fit in the lower-deck 400 B-block with its smaller main-bearing sizes. Although this crank swap isn't all that uncommon these days, David added spice to the proposal with his plan to use 400 Chrysler rods and bore the 400 block's 4.34-inch-od cylinders 0.050-over to accommodate 0.030-over Speed-Pro flattop 460 Ford pistons that would yield the right compression height with just a slight cut off the piston tops. The large overbore combined with the 0.370-inch stroke increase over a normal 383/400 Chrysler's 3.38-inch-stroke crank would yield a Chrysler 454-lots of cubes on the inside but looking like a run-of-the-mill 383 on the outside (once you get past the Edelbrock aluminum heads, RPM intake, and carb, that is).
We had little trouble coming up with a suitable core for the project. One thing you have to watch out for are '76-and-later blocks, which are thin-wall castings that usually can't take more than a 0.030 overbore. The early 400-style block we found at Memory Lane can generally be bored as much as 0.060-over provided core shift is not excessive. Ours cleaned up fine at David's prescribed 0.050-over.
However, mockup revealed that the 460 pistons' valve-notch location (designed for use in a canted-valve engine) was in the wrong place. Despite our research to the contrary, we found there wasn't enough meat to cut new notches for the Mopar valve locations. There are tons of off-the-shelf SRP and Diamond Racing pistons for this common Mopar stroker but not in the unusual 0.050-inch overbore, so we had Dougan's custom-order some JE pistons to solve the problem.
David was present to drool as his baby performed flawlessly on Westech Performance's dyno, where it made 516 hp on 91-octane pump gas. Even better from a street point of view, it generated over 550 lb-ft of torque from 3,900-5,300 rpm.
Once off the dyno, the engine was bolted to one of Universal Racing Enterprises' Mopar engine cradles, enclosed in a wooden shipping crate supplied by Bill Mitchell Products, and trucked back to Kansas, where the stout dual-purpose powerplant will soon be residing in David's '69 Dodge Super Bee currently undergoing a complete restoration.
Engine Builder's Specs
Short-Block
Displacement: 454.1 ci
Bore: 4.390 (0.050-over stock Chrysler 400)
Stroke: 3.750 (stock Chrysler 440)
Block deck height: Milled to 9.964
Piston deck height: 0.005
Piston volume: -7cc dish
Head gasket compressed volume: 13.7 cc
Compression ratio: 9.95:1
Rod length (Chrysler 440): Resized to 6.764
Piston compression height: 1.320
Piston-to-wall clearance: 0.005
Main-bearing clearance: 0.0028-0.0030
Rod-bearing clearance: 0.0020-0.0024
Rod side-clearance: 0.015-0.017
Pressed piston pin-to-rod: 0.0008 minimum
Ring endgap: 0.022/0.020/0.023
Crankshaft thrust clearance: 0.005
Piston-to-head clearance: 0.052
Cylinder Heads
Valve size: 2.14/1.81
Combustion chamber volume: Milled to 82 cc
Port volume: 210/70 cc
Flow at 0.500 lift: 278/206 cfm @ 28in H20
Flow at 0.600 lift: 290/217 cfm @ 28in H20
Valvespring od/id: 1.55/1.12
Valvespring seat pressure: 120 lb @ 1.885
Valvespring open pressure: 280 lb @ 1.400
Valvespring coil-bind height: 1.160
Critical Fasteners
ARP head bolts: 60 lb-ft (ARP lube)
ARP main studs: hand-tight; back off 11/44 (oil)
ARP main-stud nuts: 90 lb-ft (ARP lube)
ARP rod-bolt nuts: 50 lb-ft (ARP lube)
Stock balancer bolt: 140 lb-ft (oil)
Stock cam bolt: 35 lb-ft (thread-locker)
Stock intake-manifold bolts: 30 lb-ft (oil)
Comp Cams rocker-shaft bolts: 30 lb-ft (oil)
Balance
Piston weight: 674.5 grams
Piston-pin weight: 170.0 grams
Rod weight: 818.0 grams
Rod-bearing weight: 56.5 grams
Bobweight: 2,274 grams
Camshaft
Type: Hydraulic flat-tappet
Grind: Comp XE285HL
Duration, advertised: 285/297 degrees
Duration, 0.050 tappet lift: 241/247 degrees
Lobe displacement angle: 110 degrees
Installed intake centerline: 104.5 degrees
Lobe lift: 0.363/0.363
Rocker-arm ratio: 1.50:1
Valve lift at zero lash: 0.545/0.545
Valve lash: Zero plus 11/42 turn
Camshaft base circle: 1.190/1.190
Pushrod length: 8.450/8.450
Piston-to-valve clearance: 0.260/0.300
